STEPHEN THE GREAT – VASLUI 1475 – historic film online

Directed by: Mircea Drăgan
Script: Mihail Sadoveanu (roman), Valeria Sadoveanu, Constantin Mitru, Mircea Drăgan
Cast: Gheorghe Cozorici, Gheorghe Dinică, Violeta Andrei, Toma Dimitriu, Sandina Stan, Geo Barton, Ana Széles, Iurie Darie, Sebastian Papaiani, Emanoil Petruț, Florin Piersic
Producer: Ion Ion Chilom, Dumitru Fernoagă, Mihai Opriș
Cinematography by: Mircea Mladin
Edited by: Lucia Anton
Sound: Silviu Camil, Anușavan Salamanian
Year: 1975
Category: Feature film
Genre: War, Adventure, Drama
Duration: 100 minutes

302,679 – Cinepub viewers

PLOT SUMMARY

On May 21, 1469, on the feast of the Holy Ascension, Stephen the Great takes part in the feast of the monastery of Neamt, where he introduces his son, Alexander the Great, to the people. Stephen asks for help from the people to wage war ‘against the unruly’ and decides that all peasants should receive weapons and prepare for battle.

CRITICAL REVIEWS:

“A period screenplay, loosely inspired by “The Jder Brothers” and centered around the victory at Vaslui. In the 1919 essay “Cinematographic films” published in the magazine “Literary Notes”, Sadoveanu remarked how, in moving from movement and brutal peripateticism to feelings and thought, the cinema gave films “which slip into the soul that something mysterious and delicate which can only be found in the books of true writers. Following a natural evolution, the movie becomes art…”. Drăgan’s “Stephen the Great” is, as Vasile Cârlova said in 1830, a veritable “tomb of ancestral glory”, perhaps even a vault if we consider the material forces wasted. There’s nothing mysterious and delicate, nothing ineffable and vibrant, nothing of Sadovenian melancholy and fragrance in Drăgan’s film. It lacks thrill and majesty, because it is the enactment of thrill and majesty. The theme, the writer’s renown, the grandeur of the mise-en-scène and the army’s efforts to make the most effective use of its potential extras, however, bring it over seven million viewers.” – Tudor Caranfil

“To understand the full significance of a cvinticentennial (if that is the correct term), the director, Mircea Dragan, lets us wait 500 years to see the battle. Maybe not quite 500, but that’s how many it seems. And when the battle starts, all you want is for it to end and the dialog to resume: this is the effect of Drăgan’s singular antitalent for all that is action cinema.” – Andrei Gorzo, agenda.liternet.ro

“To many of those who saw it, Stefan must have seemed long and boring; but abnormal, I don’t think they thought it was. And he was abnormal: he didn’t fit into the international cinematic landscape of 1974. In fact, he acted as if there was no such landscape. There was only him in the world – just as in the world he was projecting there was only us: our country – the navel of the earth, a unique place, more isolated and exposed than any other, but at the same time a vital center, notched with the mark of greatness.” – Andrei Gorzo, agenda.liternet.ro

“Stephen the Great – Vaslui 1475″ (1975, dir. Mircea Drăgan) follows the narrative pattern of the historical productions of the RSR in a mode modeled, déjà-vu manner. The formula calls for a triggering incident consisting of the overthrow of diplomatic relations with foreign powers, court drama, preparation for confrontation, possibly a love side-story and an open-field battle. More so than in other productions of the National Cinematic Epic, the descriptive aspect of the narrative of ‘Stephen’, focused strictly on the storytelling, is exhausting.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

“The movie, produced and released to mark the 500th anniversary of the famous battle, misses its dramatic potential because it relates to its characters as mere historical figures. Their humanity, beyond their avowed virtue or villainy, is almost entirely ignored. The construction of the story stops at its purpose of event-related recording. Between the shortcomings of the plot and the failure to outline ‘fleshy’ characters that exist beyond their historical status, ‘Stephen the Great’ feels like the screenization of an illustrated portrait from a book of rulers.” – Emil Vasilache, cinepub.ro

TRIVIA:

• The movie premiered just as the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Vaslui was being commemorated.
• It was a great success in Romanian cinemas, being seen by 7,372,215 spectators, according to a survey of the number of spectators recorded by Romanian films from the date of its premiere to 31.12.2007 compiled by the National Cinematography Center.
• According to a July 31, 2012 press release from the Romanian Union of Film Writers and Directors, it ranks 10th among the most-watched Romanian films of all time.
• Most film critics have criticized the film’s superficial treatment of Sadoveanu’s work, its monotony and lack of grandeur.
• The two films dedicated to Ștefan cel Mare (“Ștefan cel Mare – Vaslui 1475” and “The Jder Brothers”, both directed by Mircea Drăgan), made during the period of the communist nationalism, conformed to the political ideology of the time in order to subtly induce the idea of love of country, cinematography being an important pillar that contributed to the rejuvenation of national symbols, of the national hero who conquers no matter what comes his way.
• Filming began on January 15, 1974 and lasted 46 days. The Battle of Podu Înalt was filmed on March 30, 1974 in the Vaslui area, with 30,000 people in the extras, “the most important mass scene ever filmed in Romanian cinema” (Cinema magazine, no. 4/1974). The rest of the filming was done in Rupea, Brăila, Neamțului Fortress, Peles Castle, Suceava, Dragomirna, Arbore, Sighișoara, Bran, Făgetu, Bucharest, Căldărușani, Prejmer, Făgăraș, Brasov, Cluj and Sibiu. Two sequences from the movie “The Jder Brothers” were also added to the montage: the soliloquy of Iusuf Ceauș and the meeting of the Council of the Country in which Stephen the Great proposes to raise the whole country to the battle.

LINES:

• “Mountaineers are not our enemies. They are still Romanians, like us.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “The building seems to me insignificant for the residence of the kingdoms of the world.” – The Sultan (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “The Doges of Venice and the Pope of Rome have much more beautiful palaces.” – The Sultan (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “I want the whole world to be one kingdom. With one religion. And one ruler.” – The Sultan (Gheorghe Dinică)
• “I don’t like wars. But I have fought whenever my country’s integrity and borders were threatened.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “The war I am preparing is a war for the soul!” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “Above our duty is holy duty.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “My dear little maid, why don’t you calm yourself, when you see how she’s consumed with love? What woman can stay so long so imbecile?” – Midwife Irina (Draga Olteanu Matei)
• “You can see that the Romanian people are cursed. Not to be able to live far from the land of its birth.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “Lord, I would sin before God and before people if I were to wear a garment for which I have no call.” – Hieromonk Nicodemus (Emanoil Petruț)
• “Either this country will perish or I will be forced of necessity to submit to the pagans. This I will never do, for I would rather have a hundred thousand dead than enslave the country.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “Are not all the sacrifices of our poor earthlings in vain?” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “My thought was to lure Suleiman to these narrow and marshy places at Vaslui. This is the only way to defeat such an army of 120,000 men.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “What is your name, brave man? I want to reward you and yours.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “Their holy sacrifice and your valor, all of you, have shown the whole world that no country, however small, can be defeated when fighting for justice and righteousness.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)
• “The children of our children’s children will forever commemorate our glorious victory.” – Stephen the Great (Gheorghe Cozorici)

ARTICLES:

• Memories are made of this – agenda.liternet.ro
• “Stephen the Great – Vaslui 1475”, the movie with the most impressive battle scene – tvr.ro
• “Behind the scenes of cinema”. How Stephen the Great’s wars were recreated on the big screen: “‘The Jder Brothers’ saved me from the army!” – adevarul.ro
• The story of Mircea Drăgan, the director who staged the famous movies in the “B.D.” series – adevarul.ro
• July 3, 2004: Podul Înalt – “Stefan the Great”, the movie of my life – jurnalul.ro

This premiere is part of a national archive project supported by the Romanian National Film Centre.
Special thanks goes to the Romanian Filmmakers Union and to the Romanian Film Archive.

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